Medicare Chief Expected Initial Obamacare Enrollment Numbers To Be Small

Marilyn Tavenner, Administrator for Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, US Department of Health and Human Services speaks during a hearing with the House Ways and Means Committee in Washington, DC, October 29, 2013. Tavenner is the first Obama Administration to testify before Congress since the troubled launch of the federal exchange website. ‘I want to assure you that Healthcare.gov can be fixed, and we are working around the clock to give you the experience that you deserve,’ she said. (credit: JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images)

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WASHINGTON (CBSDC/AP) — While the Obama administration was expecting a large number of uninsured Americans to enroll in the new health care system in its first month, the Medicare chief was forecasting numbers far lower.

An internal memo obtained by The Associated Press shows that the administration had expected nearly 500,000 people to sign up for coverage in October. But Medicare chief Marilyn Tavenner said: “We expect the initial numbers to be small.”

President Barack Obama is citing the Massachusetts health care system’s slow start to keep expectations low for early sign-ups for his own overhaul. And he’s pointing to the bipartisan effort to get the program launched in Massachusetts to encourage his opponents to stop rooting for his law’s failure.

The president planned to speak about the embattled law Wednesday from Boston’s historic Faneuil Hall, where Massachusetts Republican Gov. Mitt Romney was joined by the late Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy to sign the state’s 2006 health care overhaul bill.

There’s been no such bipartisanship surrounding Obama’s effort, particularly this month as the marketplace to allow individuals to buy health insurance went online with myriad technical problems. Republicans say the dysfunction is more reason to repeal the law, and they’re pressing Obama administration officials for an explanation.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was testifying Wednesday before a Republican-led House committee, a day after Tavenner was questioned by lawmakers about the problems.

Tavenner apologized for the website woes, but stressed it was improving daily. She repeatedly declined to say how many people have been able to sign up despite problems accessing Healthcare.gov, saying the figures would be released in mid-November.

The White House said Obama planned to point out Massachusetts’ sluggish start Wednesday. Jonathan Gruber, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology economics professor who advised both Romney and Obama on the development of their laws, said only 123 paying consumers signed up the first month of the Massachusetts law, with 36,000 coming on by the time penalties kicked in for failing to have insurance.

“That same kind of outcome will happen at the national level, but it will take time,” Gruber said in a media call previewing the trip organized by the White House. “We need to be patient and measure the outcomes in months and years, not days and weeks.”

While more people did sign up as the deadline approached in Massachusetts, its law never faced high-profile computer woes or such fierce opposition. Even though the federal law was modeled on Romney’s, the former governor ran against Obama last year on a campaign to repeal the federal version.

While in Boston, Obama also planned to speak at a fundraiser for House Democrats at the home of his former ambassador to Spain, Alan Solomont. About 60 people paid $16,200 to $64,800 to dine on Spanish-influenced fare, to be followed by Red Sox cookies in honor of the World Series game being played in town the same night.

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